The Marauders of Oz
by Sodium Slug
Summary: Crossover between The Wizard of Oz and Harry Potter. MWPP&L. The Marauders and Lily are transported into the Land of Oz on a messed up potion and find themselves on the hit list of the local wicked witch: Glinda.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: **Obviously, Harry Potter, the Wizard of Oz, and Wicked are not mine. If they were, this would be on a site for Original Fiction rather than here. Or published. Whatever.

**Crossover: **Harry Potter meets The Wizard of Oz. With hints of Wicked simply because I was too lazy to think of alternative names for the witches.

**The Marauders of Oz**

**Prologue: In which we learn how things really stand in the Land of Oz.**

"_Only one girl can defeat the Witch, __  
The Wicked Witch of the West. __  
The girl will arrive on another Witch, __  
The Witch of the East--the best. ___

She'll grow to adore _  
Her companions four,__  
__And in her quest they'll assist. __  
Who would have thought __  
Such a varied lot __  
Could actually coexist?  
__  
The first of her friends __  
Shall be black as the night;__  
A dog that might sometimes __  
Give rivals a fright.  
__  
Second: a man __  
Who falls head over heel __  
Unable to think __  
Though he tries with such zeal.  
__  
The third of the lot __  
Is a heartless young chap. __  
He'll have just woken up __  
From a rather long nap.  
__  
The fourth, though he walks __  
Upon two legs not four, __  
Is really a beast __  
That most people abhor.  
__  
Together they've power to kill the Witch, __  
The Wicked Witch of the West. __  
But without the girl: a triumphant Witch __  
And the world will end up in a mess." _

It had first been said years ago; soon after the death of Glinda's mother and sister, five years ago, in fact. The prophecy that would change Glinda's life.

Yes, that's right, Glinda. Because the witch of the west that our dear Dorothy killed was not the true witch of the west. The true witch of the west was Glinda herself, and she was indeed worse than the others.

When the old Kansas farmhouse had fallen from the sky onto Glinda's cousin Nessarose, she had been blindly afraid at first. But minutes later she realized that she could use the situation to her advantage, and she immediately rushed to Munchkinland to asses the situation.

Upon learning that the girl knew nothing of her destiny to kill Glinda, and that she wanted nothing more than to go home, Glinda sent her off to what the locals had titled the 'Wizard'.

Wizard—hah. He was no more a wizard than the dog, tutu, or whatever his name was. But the people adored him nonetheless, so he was a threat to Glinda's position of power.

Anyway. The prophecy had never stated specifically that Dorothy would be the victor. It said nothing even resembling that; only that the girl was the one person who could possibly kill her. If Glinda could send her back home without learning of her enormous power, Glinda would rule unchallenged for the rest of her life. And if she could get the Wizard out of her hair, her reign would be that much more enjoyable.

Well, you know the story from there. The Wizard and Dorothy both made their way back to Kansas without harming a hair of the witch—the right witch, anyway—and left the Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Lion behind. While these three were also mentioned in the prophecy, they could do no harm without the girl. Glinda wasn't concerned with them.

The moment Dorothy was gone, Glinda let down her benevolent façade cackled menacingly. "Hahahahaha!" she cried evilly. "You are all doomed forever; your only hope gone home still blissful with ignorance."

The Tin Man dropped his axe in shock. "Glinda?" he gasped.

She raised her eyebrows at him mockingly. "Thought I was good?" she smirked.

"What have you done to Dorothy?" the Scarecrow asked, suddenly panicking about her intentions. "You didn't kill her, did you?"

She laughed again, though with slightly less menace this time. "Oh no. I sent her home, just as I said," she told the trio reassuringly. Funny how it didn't much reassure them.

It did, however, put a silence to their protests. That, and the fact that she had just summoned her bubble and was floating away, gloating cheerfully.

She was rather fond of her bubble. Obviously, she could just apperate anywhere in the country if she wanted to, but she enjoyed floating over her lands, being reminded of all that she ruled.

The pastime was made all the more enjoyable due to Dorothy's fine work. All that she ruled had just become three times bigger thanks to the girl's quick work of her dear cousins.

She floated off to the north to check in on her newest subjects and inform them of the change of rule, blissfully happy. No one could kill her now.

Or so she thought. But at the same moment that she was floating north, the Munchkins were having a funeral for their dead tyrant. Though she had been horrible to them, she still held a certain amount of importance, and they felt the need for a ceremony.

Well, it was more of a celebration, truth be told, and they were really only doing it because they didn't think having a body rotting under a smashed up house would really be the best monument for their town, but they told themselves it was because she was important to ease their consciences slightly.

They had just lowered her body into a hole in the ground when there was a rather loud bang and a flash of light. Moments later, the Munchkins were blinking and rubbing their eyes, sure that the light had blinded them or that they had gone crazy.

There were four young men standing around the grave looking just as surprised as the Munchkins themselves. And _in_ the grave, a redheaded girl blinked in confusion at her feet, which rested on the face of the Wicked Witch of the East.

Had Glinda been present at the funeral, she might have considered the possibility that she'd misinterpreted the prophecy and that she was not, in fact, safe from execution. But she was off looking forebodingly at her newest subjects, happily unaware of the danger she was in.


	2. Chapter One

**Disclaimer: **Last time I checked, The Wizard of Oz came out in 1939, so unless I'm nearly 70 years old, (which, by the way, I'm not) I really don't think it's mine. As for Harry Potter, that's not mine either.

**Chapter One: In which a potion goes horribly wrong.**

"Right then. Step eight: Cut up four newt's eyes—parallel to the retina—in the scale of a male dragon, any breed. Slices should be two millimeters thick."

Sirius picked up the small knife and got to work on the eyes. There was a moment of silence in the dorm room, followed by a loud curse that caused Remus to frown at his friend in mock disapproval. Sirius had a mouth like a garbage can and by this point everyone was well used to it.

"I cut my finger," whined the foulmouthed boy.

James rolled his eyes at Sirius's loud complaints. "Suck it up, Pads. It won't kill you."

"Says the one who was practically crying when he stabbed himself with a needle the other day," was the comeback.

James made a face. "Hey, I stabbed that needle right between my eyes! I couldn't help it," he protested.

Lily looked at him with amusement. "How did you manage that?" she wondered aloud.

"Don't ask."

"My finger hurts," Sirius whined again into the temporary peace.

This time it was Remus who rolled his eyes. "If it's that much of a problem, wash it off and get a Band-Aid."

"And give me that knife. We don't want your blood in the potion," added Lily. Sirius did what he was told, pouting all the while about his aching finger. Lily chopped the rest of the newt's eyes into the dragon scale. "What next?" she asked.

Remus consulted the textbook. "Step nine: Sprinkle a teaspoon of dechlorinated salt onto the newt's eyes," he read. James hurried over to his bed, where the ingredients were piled high, and fished out the salt. "Oh, and grab the hen's teeth while you're over there, Prongs. We'll need them next," called Remus.

James returned, carrying the necessary bottles and handed them to Lily, who added them carefully to the potion.

Perhaps now would be a good time to explain exactly why this group of students was concocting a potion in their dorm room, an event usually only seen in the dungeons. (Or in the girl's bathroom, but that wouldn't happen for another several years.)

Well, quite honestly, I have no idea why they were making the potion in their room. But the reason is not essential to the plot, so suffice it to say, for the sake of the story, that they were working on an extra credit project for Slughorn.

Sirius wandered back from the bathroom, finger incased in a hotdog covered Band-Aid, just as Lily sprinkled the salt into the dragon scale. "Dechlorinated salt, huh?" he asked, reading the bottle she'd set aside. "Wonder how that works."

"And you've never wondered about hen's teeth?" Remus muttered, an amused expression on his face.

Sirius thought for a moment. "Nope," he finally answered with a grin. The others chuckled.

It was a rather damp afternoon sometime early in November, and they were all glad to be inside. And while some might have been happier sitting around the fire playing a nice game of chess, making a potion wasn't bad either.

Even Lily was enjoying herself. She had found that working with the boys on an assignment wasn't half-bad. They were all terribly bright, deep down. James's annoying nature to brag came rather in handy when making potions. Sirius's too, really. Lily found conceitedness about knowledge much less irritating than conceitedness about popularity or bullying.

"Now, step ten: stir the ingredients in the scale counterclockwise three times with the feather of a phoenix, and pour the mixture into the cauldron. The potion should become a bright blue color."

"Ooh, I want to stir!" James called, pulling the feather out of Lily's hand. She hid a smile behind her now empty hand and stepped back to give him room.

His yell startled Peter out of a deep sleep. He blinked drearily and wandered over to the group, just as Remus brought the cauldron (which had been sitting on the windowsill absorbing light for exactly fifteen minutes) over and took the scale from James. As he poured it into the rest of the potion—the final step—everyone crowded around to watch.

Nothing happened for a moment. Then there was a crackling noise, and the potion began to boil. Dark purple liquid splashed from the cauldron, covering the young wizards (and witch) from head to toe.

"It's purple, not blue," Sirius stated calmly.

"And it's _on us!" _squealed James, though had anyone pointed this out he would have insisted it was a manly bellow.

Remus's eyes widened. _"Specialis Revelio!"_ he cried, waving his wand at the dragon scale. The scale twitched, then slowly transformed into a thumbtack.

Lily gasped. "What have we done?" she cried. "Where did you get this?" She grabbed the thumbtack and waved it in front of the boys.

"Well, uh… Hagrid collects dra—" But before James could finish his sentence, the room began to fade from view and an overwhelmingly bright light flashed.

When they could see again, they didn't see their dorm room. "Guys, I have a feeling we're not at Hogwarts anymore," whispered Peter.

And right he was.

-------------

There was dead silence. The Munchkins blinked. The Marauders blinked. The Lullaby League crept behind the mayor. Lily glanced down to her feet and saw what exactly she was standing on. And suddenly it wasn't silent anymore.

"YIIIEEEEE!" She leapt up about three feet into the air. James somehow managed to reach out and catch her before she fell back atop the random dead lady in the ground.

Her scream seemed to wake something in the Munchkins, because they all began talking at once.

"Who…?"

"What the…?"

"That can't be normal."

"Where did they _come_ from?"

"Does this mean…?"

"The prophecy…"

Whispers of varying volumes washed across the crowd. The newcomers whispered amongst themselves too.

"I don't think that was supposed to happen," breathed Lily.

Sirius snorted. "No kidding?"

"Where did Hagrid _get _that thing?" Remus wondered.

"I didn't know, I swear!" protested James.

Peter who hadn't been paying any attention to the others and was instead looking around him, gasped. "Where _are _we?"

That drew the others' attention to their surroundings as well. Sirius drew in a sharp breath and resisted the urge to cover his eyes with his arm. Lily, Remus, and James had a similar reaction.

It was so _bright._ There was nothing that was even the slightest bit dull anywhere in sight. Bright green plants lined the bright yellow and red-bricked street. Bright blue trimmed the shiny white houses. There wasn't a dead flower or a dirty fence anywhere.

"Now I… I know we're not at Hogwarts," muttered Peter.

It was at that moment that the mayor of Munchkinland finally pulled together enough courage to address the newcomers. In song.

"As mayor of the Munchkin City, on behalf of the citizens of Oz, I'd like to welcome you most regally, but we really don't know… who you… are." His song died down into simple speaking when he couldn't think of anything to rhyme with 'regally'.

"Nope, definitely not at Hogwarts," Peter commented, almost to himself.

James took a breath and spoke for the group. "We messed up our potion is all, sir. And if you don't mind, we'd really like to get back to Hogwarts before curfew."

Lily gave him a look that spoke volumes. But since I don't have the time to write volumes and you can't see the expression yourselves, one simple sentence will have to do: _"You suck at being diplomatic"._

James rolled his eyes and muttered, "You talk then."

She did, having not noticed the look of understanding and recognition—not to mention déjà vu—that had already passed through the eyes of the mayor. "What he means is that we're wizards, you see, and we were making a potion for extra credit. Something went wrong because we used a dragon scale that wasn't actually a dragon scale, and it somehow transported us to your lovely… town." Here she began to flounder for the next thing to say, but it didn't really matter. The townspeople hadn't heard a word past 'wizards'.

"They must have been sent as replacements!" suggested the captain of the lollypop guild. Lily stopped, confused.

"Send them to the Emerald City!" cried the Coroner's wife.

The mayor looked at the five confused teenagers gravely. "Follow the yellow brick road," he said.

"What…?" Sirius wasn't the only one confused by the sudden change in the conversation.

"Follow the yellow brick road," explained the Coroner's wife, as if that cleared things up.

And then the entire town began to sing. "Follow the yellow brick road. Follow the yellow brick road."

The wizards (and witch) blinked at each other for a moment in total confusion, but the Munchkins were pushing them toward the yellow bricks on the street.

"Follow follow follow follow, follow the yellow brick road…"

"We may as well," Remus pointed out. "They're certainly not hearing of anything else."

And that's how the group found themselves headed towards the famous (though not to them) Emerald City of Oz.

**A/N:** Have you ever noticed that 'once' and 'cones' are very similar words? Neither had I… It was an amusing discovery.


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two: In which there is plotting and a meeting with the first counterpart. **

"Follow the yellow brick road! Follow the yellow brick road. Follow follow follow follow… follow…" The group stopped singing as soon as they were out of sight.

"Well that was certainly… scary," commented Remus.

"I thought they would trample us for sure if we didn't leave," James squeaked.

Lily let out a laugh. "You lot are a bunch of cowards," she giggled.

James looked affronted. "Come on Evans, you can't tell me those little singing people didn't creep you out even a little?"

"Well, they're gone now, and that's the important thing," Remus pointed out. "Now let's see if we can find a nice place to work things out."

They continued down the path for some time, no longer singing or skipping but walking along quietly. Not long into their journey, they passed an innocent-looking bench sitting on the side of the road.

"Hey, will you look at that? It's like it's here just for us," Sirius cried happily. He ran to the bench and plopped onto it with a grin.

The others paused before joining him, wary of strange happenings in this curious world. Nothing strange happened. For, you see, it really was an innocent bench, placed there carefully by the author so they would have somewhere to sit.

James plunked down next to Sirius and stretched his legs out in front of him. "Ahhh," he groaned. "Feels nice to sit down."

Lily snorted. "You've been walking for what, ten minutes? And you're tired already?" She carefully found a seat on the edge of the bench, as far from James as she could get. Just because he wasn't driving her insane at the moment didn't mean she wanted to give him any ideas.

"Sooo," Sirius began as Remus and Peter joined them on the bench. "Where the hell are we?"

He was met by silence.

"That would be the question," Remus nodded gravely.

"Well, we're definitely not at Hogwarts," Peter put in helpfully.

"No, _really?" _came the sarcastic reply from James, giving Peter a friendly whack over the head.

"I'm just listing everything we know about this place, starting with the most obvious," protested the shorter boy.

"There is a large population of insane short people about five minutes east of this point," Remus added.

Lily reached into the pocket of her robes and pulled out a sheet of parchment, miraculously unwrinkled, and a quill. The quill was one of the new, self-inking variety, very convenient for travel. But it was the parchment that caught Remus's attention.

"What spell is that?" he asked, excited. Before he could get a response, Sirius interrupted.

"Ah! Notes! Good idea." He quickly pulled the paper and quill from Lily's grasp and jotted down _not Hogwarts_ and _insane short people_. "How do you know it's east?" he asked. "If that's east, you've just put the sun in the north."

Remus nodded. "Weird, isn't it? I used a Point Me spell a while back, to make sure."

Lily raised her eyebrows. "Good thinking," she praised.

"So what else do we know about this place?" asked James, slightly jealous as he wished _he _had thought of the Point Me spell.

"It's ridiculously bright," suggested Sirius.

"They seem to know who we are," added Peter. At that comment, the others turned to look at him sharply.

"You're right," said Remus. "That's suspicious."

"I heard someone mention a prophecy," Sirius suddenly remembered.

James nodded enthusiastically. "And…replacements?" he questioned.

"That's where they're sending us, right?" Peter asked. "To be replacements?"

Soon the parchment was filled with writing. Though all of the chatter, Lily had watched quietly from her end of the bench, fascinated by their cheerful analysis and focused attention.

_James Potter actually looks rather sexy when he's plotting something, _she thought. Then she realized what she'd thought, and jumped up from the bench in shock. She had _not _just thought of Potter as sexy. That wasn't even a word in her brain's normal _vocabulary. _Where had that come from?

"What's wrong, Evans?" James looked up from the note-covered sheet of parchment in concern.

She felt the faintest tinges of a blush creep into her cheeks as she sat back down and muttered "nothing". James shrugged and went back to his fact compiling.

Moments later Lily was standing again, this time joined by all four of her companions. They huddled together in fear behind their beloved bench.

There were only a few things that could reduce five sixth year Gryffindors to cowering behind a bench, but apparently a scarecrow walking down the road singing was one of those things.

"…could tell you why… the ocean's near the shore… I could—" His singing came abruptly to a halt when he saw the frightened group. He cocked his head. "Did I scare you?" he asked, cheerfully.

Peter nodded nervously for the group.

The strange man of straw broke into a grin. "I can scare people even without a brain!" he cried happily.

Lily looked up at him with concern. "You don't have a brain?" she asked, overcoming her fear and stepping forward.

The scarecrow sighed. "Only straw. You see, I was off to see the Wizard of Oz a few days back, but when we got there, all he gave me was a diploma. I thought I finally had a brain, but I soon learned that things were no different than before."

"How can you talk without a brain?" asked Remus, always the logical one.

Lily snorted. "The same way Potter can, I expect," she answered, and the scarecrow nodded gravely.

"Yes. I suppose so," the straw man agreed. Sirius giggled as James fumed. Oh no, excuse me. Sirius _chuckled manfully _as James fumed.

The subject of brainless talking was dropped for the moment though, when James elbowed Remus and whispered something. Remus then pulled a large book from the pocket of his robe.

"How did _that _fit in there?" Lily gapped. She really needed to spend more time with these boys; she could learn a few things.

"Simple shrinking spell," replied Remus, handing the hefty tome to James.

"There might be an organ-growing spell in here," muttered James as he began sifting through the pages. Lily looked at the boys in wonder.

After a few moments, the book was shut with a thud and James looked to the rest of the group. "Well?" prompted Peter.

"Nothing," was the sad response. "But we'll work on it. I did find a charm that will allow us to locate you again if we need to," he told the scarecrow. "If we find anything out, we'll come get you."

The scarecrow's grin looked like it might rip his face in two. "Thank you!" he cried.

James flicked his wand at the man and he muttered some words. Then, "Okay! Read to go?"

"Wait!" cried Sirius. "We should ask him where we are."

The other boys' jaws dropped at how stupid they had been. "Right!" cried Remus. He turned to the straw man. "Where are we?" he asked.

"The Land of Oz, five minutes west of Munchkinland, I believe," replied the scarecrow.

Lily spoke up then. "Do you know of any prophecy? Or know anything of replacements for the wizard" she asked.

The scarecrow shook his head. "The Tin Man and Lion and I were supposed to rule after the Wizard left, but Glinda won't allow it. Goes to show how good my brain is…" he muttered. "Thought she was good. And I don't know anything about a prophecy."

The wizards nodded sadly, with a mumbled curse from Sirius. "Right then. Thanks. And we'll see you around," said James, and the group of five continued down the road in the way they had originally been going.


	4. Chapter Three

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter and The Wizard of Oz still aren't mine. Neither is Wicked (names again). Oh, and I got the chapter title from one of those Dealing with Dragons books. . 

**A/N: **Whee, reviews! You guys are awesome! Thanks!

**Chapter Three: In which the plot thickens. **

Glinda crossed the cold stone floor in the entry of her cousin's castle, a large grin on her face. It was finally hers.

No, not the castle, though she'd inherited that as well. The crystal ball.

In all honesty, she rather disliked the castle. Elphaba's idea of good décor had always varied monstrously from her own. The emerald witch had always been a bit more fond of medieval style architecture, while Glinda preferred a more modern, stylish look. She'd always favored frilly pink rather than her cousin's traditional black robes.

As a young girl, she'd always loved shopping. Her closet by the age of fifteen contained fifty three different pairs of shoes and even more dresses. She'd slept over at her cousin's one day and had nearly keeled over when she'd seen dear Elphie's closet: two pairs of shoes and about five black robes. Nothing more.

On the subject of dress, "Stupid stairs…" muttered Glinda as she tried to navigate them. "Why did she have them made so narrow?" Wide as they were, the stairs would not accommodate Glinda's mile-wide skirt. About two feet of the bulky material hung off the side, threatening to pull the witch down to the stone floor below.

Stone… what was up with that? It made the castle so dark and gloomy. The forest of doom outside and the evil monkeys in the spare rooms didn't help either.

Not that she minded the evil monkeys. Dress them up in something a bit cheerier and they'd do very nicely. Oh yes, Glinda had plans for this castle. Great plans. It would be beautiful when she was finished with it.

She managed to reach the top of the staircase without any horrible accidents, and finally she was in the room that held her precious crystal ball.

While Glinda normally favored clothing over fancy magical equipment like shoes or crystal balls, she had always been rather envious of her cousin. The ball was one of a kind, made especially for her by her indulgent mother. Always was a spoiled one, Elphie.

Glinda never got any of that kind of thing as a child. It was always 'work for the money' or 'make it yourself; you're a bright girl'. It was never 'oh, I was feeling generous so I whipped up this special, one of a kind, magical mirror that will show anywhere in the country that you want it to show'.

Yes, Glinda was bitter. But everything would be better now. She had the crystal ball. Oh, yes. It was hers. All hers.

She giggled her evil giggle—well practiced over the years and she was rather proud of it—and looked into the ball's foggy depths, filled with excitement.

"Show me… Munchkinland," came the sinister whisper.

-------------

The mayor ran a hand across the smooth, gelled surface of his head in distress. He didn't know what to think.

"We don't want to spread false hope through the land. But if it's true, we certainly don't want the country to succumb to false despair," stated the mauve-clad assistant, summarizing what had been concluded after an hour's serious discussion on the matter.

Another assistant spoke up. "It's clearly a possibility that she is the One, and that the other girl was simply a fluke."

"But how likely is _that? _That two different girls would just _happen _to land on the same witch just a few days apart?" wondered another assistant.

"Well, there's no denying that it _has _happened, likely or not," pointed out the mayor.

An assistant in blue pulled a document from his piles of papers. "Let's look over the wording again. Maybe there's some catch. It's unusual for two people to match a prophecy exactly, after all," he suggested. "'Only one girl can defeat the Witch, the Wicked Witch of the West—'" He was cut off.

"See there? _One girl. _Not _two,"_ cried the mayor in confusion.

The man in mauve shook his head as if to clear it. "It's clearly can't be both girls…" he said, grasping at fragments of facts.

"'The girl will arrive on another Witch,'" the blue assistant continued to read. "They clearly both landed _on _the witch."

"Now that Dorothy girl, she landed her _house _on the witch. Maybe that isn't enough?" the mayor wondered aloud.

"She _killed _the woman!" an assistant protested.

"But this girl landed _on _the witch! On her _face!" _argued the mayor. "If there can be only one, she landed on the witch a whole lot more than Dorothy did."

"She was already dead. Maybe it doesn't count?" muttered the mauve one.

"'The Witch of the East—the best!'" cried the man in blue, still reading from the prophecy. "Our witch certainly wasn't the best of the four! Sure, Glinda's the worst by far, but I'd say her sister in the South is the best. Not Nessarose."

"But she was undeniably the best once she was dead," pointed out an assistant wearing brown.

"I think we have some hope," declared the mayor cheerfully.

"But what if you're wrong?" another assistant challenged.

And they were back at square one. Again.

So the arguments went on. They had all been so sure that Dorothy was the one who would kill Glinda. Now everything was turning upside-down.

-------------

Glinda gaped at the ball. The munchkins were still talking, but she didn't hear them anymore. _Another girl? _she thought. _How can there be another girl? The prophecy _promised _only one. _

She sunk to her knees, despairing. She would have to take matters into her own hands now, once again. She was weakened from her last attempt at removing threats on her life. And she'd been so happy when she thought she was safe.

But now she had her cousin's crystal ball. Everything would be easier with that.

"Show me this… other girl," she whispered. And oh how she loved the sinister sound to that whisper.

As a girl, Glinda had been the perfect angel. This evil thing had only come up in the last ten years or so. But things were different now. And she would get rid of this girl and her companions if it was the last thing she did.


	5. Chapter Four

**Disclaimer:** Characters from The Wizard of Oz and Harry Potter. Alphabet from Evander, son of Sibyl. Knowledge of that fact from Wikipedia. Everything else is mine.

**Chapter Four: In which a member is lost.**

"Follow the yellow brick road… follow the yellow brick road…" The group sang as they walked along, arms linked and legs kicked high with every step. They were bored.

"What's that?" asked Peter, interrupting the off-key singing and stopping in his tracks.

The rest of the wizards stopped as well. "What's what?" asked Sirius.

Peter waited for a minute before answering. "Nothing," he finally proclaimed. "Nothing. I just thought I heard something." Sirius shrugged and continued down the road, looping his arms around those of James and Remus, pulling them with him. Lily followed, but Peter stood still for a moment longer.

This was a bad idea.

The others had scarcely resumed their walking when a toucan from the tree above decided it would be a good idea to dive-bomb poor, innocent Peter. "Aaaghh!" he cried in anguish as sharp claws dug into his arms.

The bird-free marauders came running, waving their arms and yelling to scare the toucan away, within seconds.

But the bird was persistent. It was oblivious to their violent cries; its concentration focused only on Peter. Sharp talons began to draw blood and Peter flailed about helplessly, trying to fend off the possessed bird.

It took a paralyzing spell from James before the toucan ceased its tormenting, leaving a badly scratched Peter as it fell motionless to the ground. Lily hurried up to the group, amazed at their reflexive speed.

"Um…" Peter began shakily when he regained his breath. "That was random and unexpected."

The boys laughed nervously, but Lily expressed concern. "Are you all right?" she asked.

Peter smiled reassuringly. "Sure."

"Was that what you heard, mate?" asked James.

"It must have been," reasoned Peter. He got to his feet, leaning on Remus and Sirius for support. "I need to sit down," he realized, blushing at his weakness though he needn't have been embarrassed. He had just been attacked by a crazy bird, after all.

His friends helped him over to the edge of the road, where the grass was bright green and very inviting. He flopped to the ground in relief.

And vanished.

-------------

There was a surprised yelp from behind her. Glinda whirled around, wand raised in defense. No more than three feet away, a surprised looking young man lay on the stone floor.

He looked familiar, which might have been because she'd just been watching him in her ball of crystal. She grinned an evil grin at his sudden appearance. _Perfect. _

"W-Who are you?" the boy stuttered.

Glinda smiled dazzlingly. "I'm Glinda, the witch of the West," she said in a beautifully melodic voice.

Peter relaxed visibly. "You're a witch?" he asked excitedly. "Great! Maybe you can help us get home! Where are we?"

Glinda pretended to look put out. "Get home?" she asked. "Why would you want to go home? Oz is a wonderful place." Peter refrained from comment, and Glinda continued. "And who is this 'us'? You arrived here alone."

That caught Peter's attention. He remembered his fall into the grass, and remembered that his friends were not with him. "My friends! Where are my friends?" he cried. Glinda put on a confused face, but before she had time to answer him, her crystal ball caught his eye.

It was still showing Peter's classmates. And it was probably better for Glinda that he saw it then, before she went into greater detail in her feigning ignorance.

As it was, Peter was immediately suspicious. "Who are you?" he asked, eyes narrowed.

"My name is Glinda. I rule these lands." Outside, she looked calm and composed. Inside, her mind raced. There must be a way to use Peter's fortuitous arrival to her advantage. Perhaps if she kept him away from the others, they would be unable to fulfill the prophecy.

Ignoring this last piece of explanatory narration as if it didn't exist (which to her it didn't), Glinda continued. "I believe the question that should be asked what's a handsome young wizard like _you _doing on a stone floor like this?" She shot a dazzling smile his way and fluttered her lashes.

-------------

James, Sirius, Remus, and Lily all gaped at the empty patch of ground where Peter had been a moment before.

A stunned silence followed. Half a minute ticked by before anyone said anything. The leaves above fluttered in the breeze, and a crow cawed in the distance. It's not every day that one of your best friends vanishes into thin air, even at Hogwarts.

"This is not a normal place," commented Remus, shattering the silence.

Sirius figuratively ducked to avoid being hit by any falling shards of broken silence. He pulled out the page of notes they'd collected earlier. _Grass causes disappearance, _he scribbled, frowning in concentration as he tried to think of what could have possibly happened.

"Do… do you think he's all right?" whispered Lily.

James put his arm around her shoulders and squeezed. "I hope so," he replied. Lily grimaced and stepped out of his embrace.

Remus cleared his throat after an awkward moment. "We'd better keep moving. The sooner we get to a town the better."

Lily nodded with conviction. "That's right. Maybe someone can explain it when we get there."

"We should have asked that scarecrow to come along with us," commented James, to the agreement of his friends.

And so their journey continued, lacking one member and all the cheerful adventure it had possessed before. The group walked quickly and spoke little, hurrying towards their destination.


	6. Chapter Five

**A/N: **Just as a reminder, the prophecy can be seen in full at the beginning of the prologue.

Also, omg. It's a longer chapter. Apologies for the long wait, but my creativity went on holiday.

Aaaand, special thanks to MooBlack for betaing this chapter (and most of the previous chapters). It's fifty times better now!

**Chapter Five: In which there is a hunt for Peter and the Munchkinland Council finally begins to make "progress".**

Three hours later, the Munchkinland Council was no further than they'd been two chapters ago, and the munchkins' stomachs were beginning to growl. The Mayor's First Advisor volunteered to fetch food.

"Hurry back!" was the Mayor's reply.

The cool breeze on his face as the First Advisor walked outside had never felt so good. It was rare for the council meetings to run over half an hour, tops. (There wasn't much conflict in Munchkinland.) When it ran over three hours, as it had today, everyone started to go crazy.

He ducked through the throng of people milling around the square. Munchkinland rarely got visitors. Now there were six in a single week. It would be the hot gossip for decades.

Within minutes, the First Advisor arrived at the catering company in charge of feeding the council. The company was the most widely known in the country; it was no joke catering for all those businessmen. While it was true their meetings rarely extended over thirty minutes, they were in the habit of holding a dinner party every night to relax after a long day's work.

Anyway, this isn't crucial to the story, so I'll stop rambling on about it. The Mayor's First Advisor was ducking back through the crowd in the square, returning to the meeting, when he decided to take his time and absorb some of the gossip. To his left was a bunch of giggling Munchkin girls.

"Did you _see _them?" gasped one.

"_So _hot," another replied

"The dark haired one looked _right _at me." The entire group squealed. The First Advisor rolled his eyes. _Teenage girls. _

"Five at once… This will go down in history for sure," he overheard from a group of elderly women just ahead of him.

"It almost overshadows the first girl."

"We've never had so much hope before… reminds me of how it was before the witches took over," another old lady rasped out.

There was nodding all around, from the other women. "Those were the days," one muttered.

_No matter what we decide, people are going to hope, _the First Advisor realized. He hurried back to the council meeting.

Just as he was opening the door, the teenage girls' conversation came back to him. _The boys! _he thought, feeling stupid. They'd hardly discussed the boys at all; they were so caught up in the potential of the girl.

"She isn't the girl in the prophecy," he called out as he entered the room. The other council members looked up in surprise.

The Mayor spoke. "You've been saying that all afternoon. Why do you repeat yourself now? Do you have further proof?" The First Advisor nodded enthusiastically and strode over to the assistant clothed in blue; the bookkeeper.

"May I read over the prophecy?" he asked. The bookkeeper handed over a copy.

After skimming it over quickly, the First Assistant began to point out details they hadn't yet looked at. "'The first of her friends shall be black as the night; a dog'—a _dog! _You see? It doesn't work. There was no dog; it was just the five of them. All clearly human. And 'the fourth… is really a beast that most people abhor'? There were certainly no beasts among them."

The council looked at him blankly when he was finished. The evidence was irrefutable. Dorothy had had a dog with her, no doubt about it. This young group of wizards did not. And a beast? No, they were all human. Not a beastly trait among them.

The Mayor stood up sadly. "Well," he announced, "I suppose we'd best be informing the citizens of Munchkinland that she's not the one."

And they did just that.

-------------

"Well let's not just stand here gaping at each other! We've got to find Peter!" cried James, flailing his arms about in a panicked manner that made Lily look at him oddly. He stopped flailing his arms and shot her a cheesy grin that he surely thought was winning.

Lily rolled her eyes, but the gesture lacked the venom it might have a few hours earlier.

"Does anyone know a tracing spell?" asked Sirius. No one did.

"That book you've got, Remus?" suggested Lily, remembering the large book Remus kept shrunken in his robes. After a quick look in the index, the book (ironically called 538 Useful Spells for Unexpected Situations) was determined unhelpful yet again.

"Damn," muttered Sirius. "Why can't you have a _useful_ textbook hidden away in there? They should call it 538 _Useless _Spells." Remus shrugged apologetically.

James was staring moodily at the spot in the grass where Peter had vanished. Suddenly, his eyes lit up with a brilliant idea. "We've got to go after him!" he exclaimed.

Lily looked at him as if he were mad. "Are you _mad?" _she cried, verifying that he'd correctly read her expression.

He held up his hands defensively. "Hey, we have no idea where we are now, right? If we step on that grass, surely we'll be no worse off." He had a point, and Remus nodded in agreement.

"He has a point."

"But who knows where Peter is now! He could have been transported into a vat of boiling water! He could have been _vaporized! _How do we know we won't be killed!" protested Lily.

"Come on, Evans!" pleaded James, slinging an arm around her shoulder. "You're in Gryffindor. Don't be a coward."

She flung his arm away in exasperation. _"Potter! _There's cowardice, and then there's pure stupidity! Jumping into suspicious grass that made poor Peter vanish into thin air in the middle of a strange place you've randomly been taken to by a freak potions accident on the off chance that you'll be able to help Peter out of whatever unknown problems he might be facing right now would fall under the category of pure stupidity!"

The frustration injected into Lily's tirade was, of course, entirely due to the obvious insanity of her companion and had nothing whatsoever to do with the butterflies his arm had given her stomach. After all, this was _Potter._

That was when Remus began walking toward the edge of the road, toward the grass that had so recently swallowed their slightly pudgy friend. "Peter has always stuck by us. We can't just leave him to fend for himself."

Lily reeled in surprise. "I would expect you of all people to see why this is a bad idea!" she screeched at her fellow prefect.

Sirius chose this moment to speak up. "You want to leave Peter all by himself in a strange place, be my guest. But we're going after him." He followed Remus toward the grass.

James nodded. "He's one of my best mates, and I won't leave him," he declared.

Lily felt slightly sick at the idea of being left on this strange road by herself and momentarily saw their side of the issue. But surely it would be best to keep heading toward the city! People there could help them. They could return home! These boys were lunatics. She'd never liked them anyway.

_Better alone than dead, right?_

With a grimace, Lily gave in. "Fine, let's go," she sighed. James grinned at her. Remus flopped to the grass exactly where Peter had been. His body had left a faint impression in the grass.

The others held their breath. One second… two… three… four…

Nothing happened.

Remus sat up with a puzzled expression. "Maybe you're not heavy enough?" suggested Sirius.

"Padfoot!" Remus cried in an aggravated tone.

"I'm just saying… I'm not making fun. Just… he's bigger than you. It's a fact," protested Sirius.

Remus, being a reasonable person, conceded the point and moved on. "Help me add more weight then," he said.

Sirius dropped down beside him on the grass.

Still, nothing happened.

James joined his friends, even though the two of them were already far heavier than Peter. Still nothing.

"What the hell?" moaned Sirius. "Why won't it work anymore?"

Lily wouldn't admit it, but she was relieved. They weren't going to die after all.

Honestly, she hardly knew the guy. Peter was the quietest of the four friends and rarely talked to her at all. She wasn't sure she was willing to risk her life for him.

"I guess we'll have to find Wormtail another way," muttered James.

But Remus wasn't ready to give up yet. He sat in the grass with a scowl on his face, straining his brain for some idea. He got his companions to do everything he could think of, and the young wizards eagerly tried everything Remus suggested. They jumped and flopped and dropped and rolled and kicked, all to no avail. They tried recounting their previous conversation… nothing.

The perseverance of the boys gave Lily a shock. She'd never seen them like this. Gone were the easygoing appearances and the casual sarcasm. This was serious business.

Remus was so serious that he even managed to convince his mates to injure him in the same places Peter had been hurt, but even that didn't work. In the end, he admitted defeat. They would not reach Peter this way.

Lily was awed at the boys' devotion to Peter. All of them were shockingly persistent. Clearly the four of them were very close, and Lily wondered what could possibly create such a strong bond.

It was well after nightfall when the boys called it quits. The moon was a crescent, the unusual angle making it resemble a celestial grin. Though there wasn't much of it, moonlight illuminated the field brightly, making everything easy to see.

They decided to sleep in the field where Peter had vanished simply because they were now convinced it was perfectly safe. After everything they'd done they were in exactly the same state they'd been in before (aside from their current exhaustion which hadn't been there previously). Surely sleeping here would be safe.

And if the grass decided to transport them as it had Peter, well, that's what they wanted in the first place.

**A/N:** And there we have chapter five.

By the way… have you ever noticed the spelling of bookkeeper? oo kk ee… Yeah. Well, I thought it was interesting, anyway.


	7. Chapter Six

**Chapter Six: In which there is a great deal of history.**

Those damn birds were outside the window again. It was getting almost frightening. They'd started turning up here and there about five years ago, and Glinda hadn't really been fazed at first. After all, even in a climate that was in no way tropical, a couple of toucans aren't _that_ strange. Or, no stranger than the rest of Oz.

But when they began to turn up more and more frequently, until she couldn't set a foot anywhere without running into a flock of them... That's when they began to creep her out.

"I swear, they're stalking me," she commented, attempting chit-chat with the boy in the ornate wooden chair across from her. She figured casual was the best plan of action; the most likely to relax him, put him at ease.

Peter glanced out the window and gave a start. Even to someone who hadn't just been randomly attacked by one of the brightly colored birds, the sight was slightly unnerving.

"There's millions of them," he breathed. And wasn't that the truth? They lined the branches of the trees outside, their bright beaks completely changing the atmosphere of the gloomy forest.

"I wish I knew what they were thinking…," Glinda went on, almost to herself. "It's like they're obsessed with me. Why else would they want to be in these dreadful woods?"

Peter blinked. "Why don't you hire a gardener, if you dislike the forest so much?" he asked as though stating the obvious.

Glinda was about to reply that she'd only just moved in when there was a bang from downstairs. They both jumped, and Glinda stood. "Wait here," she said to Peter, and left the room.

As she rustled down the stairs, the luck that had been keeping her balanced on the way up ran cold. Three steps from the bottom, she caught sight of who'd caused all the racket. The surprise was just enough to distract her from balancing, and the heavy weight of her skirt hanging off the edge of the too-narrow staircase toppled her to the cold, stone floor.

"Elaina!" she cried, blushing from the heap of bright pink fabric she had become. "What are you doing here? It's been years!"

"Yes, well," began the other witch, extending a hand suspiciously for her sister. Glinda looked disdainful and pulled herself off the ground without Elaina's help. Expecting nothing less, Elaine shrugged and continued. "I read about our dear cousins in the newspaper, and, well... I was just... making sure you were doing all right. I know you have difficulties dealing with death..." She trailed off when she saw Glinda's livid expression.

"I do not deal badly with death!" she exclaimed. "The deaths of Mother and Aunt Claire were the best thing that ever happened to me, god rest their souls. Without that, I would never have realized my full potential!"

"Full potential to bring misery down upon your people?" seethed Elaina. The sisters had never seen eye to eye on the subject of proper ruling.

"Why are you always trying to move on? Don't you ever show sadness?" The argument was the same as always. There was a reason they hadn't seen each other in years.

"Don't you ever show _respect?_ Mother would be rolling over in her grave if she could see how you've been behaving," said Elaina.

Glinda was quick to retort. "I don't see everyone living happily ever after in your quarter of Oz either." Elaina stepped back as if slapped. That one stung every time.

"Well at least I'm trying," she spat.

The two sisters stood glaring at each other, breath coming hard. It was surprising how something that happened so long ago could still have such a hold on their lives.

A mere ten years ago, Oz had been a happy place. It was peacefully divided between two sisters, Sharla and Claire, and they ruled with a gentle hand. Each had two beautiful daughters who blessed the country with their blissful innocence; cheering any whose paths they crossed.

But then, the Dark Age of Oz swept down like a cloak of gloom over the country. It began with the sudden and tragic deaths of Sharla and Claire.

The day had been bright and cheerful. Birds chirped happily in the trees. Well, they might not have been chirping. It _had _happened ten years ago, and who remembers details like that, even about their own mother's death? But in Oz, birds usually chirp on beautiful spring days, so they had probably been doing so on that fateful day as well.

Anyway, the day had been bright and cheerful. Birds probably chirped happily in the trees. The two families were picnicking together by a gorgeous stream.

Then, suddenly, _something terrible happened! _

Use your imagination, because mine's broken right now.

Okay, so I won't leave you hanging like that. The two families were picnicking together by a gorgeous stream. After lunch, a game of tag broke out. The field was filled with laughter and cheer, until Sharla slipped into the water. She squealed in delight after finding herself dripping with the cool, refreshing liquid.

But Claire mistook the screams of delight for screams of panic and came running to the rescue, only to slip on the same mossy rocks Sharla had discovered. As she fell, her wand slipped, and BANG! Sharla was dead. The girls watched in horror. Claire attempted to regain her footing to rush to her sister, but slipped again and BANG! she too was dead.

The event brought all four girls into a great depression. Each mother's realm was divided in two and split between her daughters; daughters that were not fit to rule.

Nessarose locked herself into her castle to wallow in her grief, refusing to come out for over a year. She only survived because Elphaba insisted that the servants feed her. Elphaba herself became obsessed with perfecting her haunted castle. She'd always been a bit darker than her cousins, and now she turned dark to an extreme. The citizens of both their kingdoms went ignored.

Elaina tried her best to continue making her subjects as happy as her mother had done. But it was an enormous task, and it was beyond the capability of a nineteen-year-old witch whose mother had just been killed. Her country fell to neglect, and crime became as prevalent in her quarter of the country as it was in her cousins'.

Glinda was a different story altogether. She coped with the death of her mother by taking out her pain and frustration on her people.

The Glinda in the castle, now ten years older and wiser, took a deep breath and pulled herself together. "I have no desire to rule a peaceful and happy nation. Unhindered joy doesn't happen. It's unrealistic and sappy. Suffering is what makes a person what they are. My people, at least, are united against me. They have something to believe in! Yours have no purpose in their lives, and live simply to keep living. How can you even _suggest _that you are a better ruler than I?" she said calmly.

As usual, Elaina rolled her eyes at her sister's argument, blowing her off. "Well, I see you're still the same as you ever were. Sorry I disturbed you," she said brusquely and vanished with a pop.

Glinda stood looking at the spot where she'd stood for a moment, then turned away slowly with a grimace and returned upstairs to where she'd left Peter.

But when she got there, the room was empty. The young boy was gone.

**A/N: **Wow. I'm soooo sorry about the delay, guys. Thanks for being patient with me. I have excuses like schoolwork and vacation, but I'm sure no one really cares. What's important is that I got chapter six up finally, and it's finally summer which means updates will become more frequent. (I swear!) Also, many, many thanks to my beta, MooBlack, especially for help with the tragic death scene.


	8. Chapter Seven

**Chapter Seven: In Which Secrets are Spilled and Tales are Told**

The grass did not, in fact, transport them while they slept. James, Sirius, Remus, and Lily awoke the next morning at dawn to find themselves in the exact same place they'd been the night before.

However, there was one exception. Peter.

Lily was jolted out of any lingering traces of sleep the moment she saw him. "Peter!"

Her cry brought the others out of their own groggy state, and cheers were sounded all around. Seconds later, Peter could hardly be seen he was so covered with friends. They hugged him until Lily thought he would surely burst.

"What happened?"

"Where have you been?"

"You bloody vanished into thin air!"

"...tried to get you back for hours and hours..."

"...and then we didn't know what to do."

Questions flew so fast the poor boy struggled to make sense of them. After a few moments of this, Remus started bringing about some order.

"Hey, hey. Everyone slow down. Let go of Wormtail before he bursts," he said, giving voice to Lily's earlier concerns. The dark-haired wizards pulled back from the blond, giving him air.

After a few gasps and huffs and a fond "Great to see you too," Peter regained his color. He had been turning a sickly shade of blue.

"Now," continued Remus. "I think we could all use some breakfast. Peter can tell us about his adventures while we eat." He glanced expectantly at James.

James grinned and reached into the pocket of his robes for the various snacks he tended to keep there. Slowly, the grin slipped into a frown of concentration as he moved his hand to a different pocket. This was follow by frantic scrambling and a rather panicked look, until the grin made a sheepish reappearance and he looked at his friends. "I'm fresh out of food," he announced.

This revelation was met by groans. They were in the middle of a field. A field filled with nothing but grass and the occasional daisy.

"How can you not have food?" moaned Sirius. "You _always _have food."

James shrugged helplessly. "Peter, have you got any?" he asked.

Peter had no food. A story certainly, but no food. "Can't we worry about that later?" He whined bouncing up and down impatiently, but the others were suddenly preoccupied with the whole no food thing.

Lily looked around at the suddenly foreboding field. After some quiet thinking, she said, "Well, since there's obviously no food here, we'd better keep going. Maybe some will turn up."

"Excellent plan, Evans darling," exclaimed James, for once glad that the attention was being taken away from him.

Lily flashed him a somewhat forced looking smile and they all wandered back toward the road. "You know, 'Evans darling' is somewhat contradictory," she commented.

Peter let out a quiet but impatient groan.

James whipped his head around, surprised at the casual conversation. Lily never just started talking to him! It was always scolding this and reprimanding that, and 'no, I won't go out with you, you big-headed jerk'. A casual conversation was almost unthinkable.

"How so?" he asked.

"Well, calling me darling could be almost endearing, but calling my by my surname is anything but."

James gave a start. "Wha-?" But before he could respond further, Sirius interrupted. "Much as this analysis of your relationship fascinates all of us, I think Remus and I are a bit more interested in what Peter has to say." Remus nodded. James looked at his feet, and Peter shuffled his in excitement.

"Right," James muttered. Then, suddenly filled with enthusiasm, "Well, what are you waiting for, Pete? Tell us about it! Where did you go? What happened? How did you get back?"

The group had reached the yellow brick road and began to walk down it, resuming the course they'd been innocently traveling before the random toucan had so rudely interrupted their journey.

"Yeah, let's hear the story, Pete!" said Remus.

Finding himself at the center of the attention of his companions, Peter began. He drank up the attention and decided to milk his story for all it was worth.

"Well," he began. "When I flopped onto that patch of grass, I was instantly transported into a castle... of doom."

------

The moment Glinda had left the room, Peter knew he had to get back to the rest of the marauders.

He could see them through the witch's crystal ball, and currently Remus was being beaten to a pulp to recreate Peter's wounds. Of course, Lily promptly healed them again the moment it was decided ineffective, but still! Who knew what they would do next!

(Besides which, he was a bit scared of the gloomy castle, not that he would ever admit it. There was manic screaming from the room next to his and the colorful birds outside were surreal. Anyone would have been frightened under the circumstances.)

He had to find a way out. Of course, that was easy enough. He was an Animagus, after all.

------

"You're a _what?" _screeched Lily, skidding to a stop.

"Oh shit," muttered Sirius along with Peter's "oops".

"We can explain," began James but Lily jumped on him before he could continue. Verbally of course. She would never jump on him physically. Ever. The thought had never even crossed her mind. Ever.

Well, maybe it had. But it would have been purely out of anger. Never... anything else. Really!

Anyway. Lily jumped on James. Verbally. "You knew about this too? And Sirius? And I suppose Remus did too!" Remus looked at his feet.

"It's not just Peter," Sirius spoke up, slightly frightened by Lily's wrath but holding his ground. "James and I, too. We're Animagi too."

James winced at his implication in the crime.

Somehow, she knew they were unregistered. Of course, if they had been registered, she probably would have heard about it. They were sixteen after all; not even of age!

"You know that is illegal! What on earth were you thinking?" In spite of her scolding however, Lily was impressed. Wait, what? No she wasn't! Who said that?

She most certainly was _not _impressed that they broke the law by performing a very complicated charm...signifying that they were all shockingly talented. No one their age had ever become Animagi before!

But she was in no way impressed. Nor jealous. She was simply horrified and disgusted by their flagrant disregard for the law.

Okay, maybe she was a little, tiny bit impressed.

Okay, maybe a lot.

But still! It was illegal!

"...you should at least register so you're not breaking the law," she said, winding gown after a rather long, angry tirade. Then, "What... what animals are you?"

Sirius grinned. "Guess."

------

After their lengthy tangent brought on by Peter's slip up, the group finally realized that they hadn't heard how he escaped yet.

Remus, thankful Lily hadn't asked _why _his friends had become Animagi (or why he hadn't done so), brought the subject back to Peter as soon as he could. He did this very subtly.

"Hey, not to change the subject or anything, but we still haven't heard much of Peter's story."

"Right!" cried Sirius. "Continue with your story!"

So he did.

------

He had to find a way out. Of course, that was easy enough. He was an Animagus, after all.

It was a mere five seconds after Glinda's departure that Peter vanished from the room as well, and a rat appeared in his place.

First obstacle overcome. Excellent.

Now all that lay between him and his friends was a door, an unknown castle, a door to the outside, and an indeterminate distance across space and possibly time.

But now that he was in no danger of being spotted by Glinda when she returned, he was one step closer.

If only he knew where he was going.

Of course that was merely a trifle. He was a marauder, after all. He had all those sneaking and exploring skills down pat. Even a dark gloomy castle with manic screams in the next room couldn't stop him.

Speaking of which, what was up with those screams anyway? He'd noticed them before. They didn't exactly sound human, but he couldn't be sure. And if they weren't human, what on earth were they?

For that matter, was he even on earth?

He briefly considered sticking around for a while more, to see if he could pick up more information from this Glinda witch. She seemed nice enough, and oh so sparkly, but he wasn't particularly keen on trusting anyone given his current situation.

She had said he was handsome...

But no, he would get back to his friends before they killed each other trying to find him.

They were all better looking than him anyway. If they managed to get here eventually—and he had no doubt that they would—Glinda would lose all interest in lowly Peter.

Best be escaping then.

Now, the next obstacle to overcome was the door. It was firmly closed, and in his rat form he had no ability to open it. Squinting up at the doorknob and such resulted in the determination that the door was, in fact, locked. Well that was no good. Not unexpected, but certainly not good.

Rat holes? Unlikely in a magical home, but he checked anyway. The search yielded not even a mouse hole, not even a _dent_. There may be ungodly creatures howling in the next room, but there were no rats in this castle.

Well, except Peter. Peter was in the castle, and Peter was a rat. But that should be fairly obvious.

And besides, he wasn't a real rat. Just... sort of a rat. Sometimes.

Well, sometimes as of this point in his life. Little did he know that he would end up spending about ten years straight of his life in rat form.

But that's irrelevant.

It was at about this point that Peter realized it had taken roughly a page to determine that he couldn't get out the door, and decided that the story was moving far too slowly. He decided to put an end to the author's rambling and cut to the chase.

Or rather, the escape.

This occurred when Glinda reentered the room. Since he was standing right by the door when it opened, he was easily able to slip out into the hallway before she even saw him.

Which was rather fortunate, as he suspected Glinda wouldn't take too fondly to rats.

She didn't seem to take too fondly to Peter's disappearance either. Judging from the rather loud squeal of disapproval that sounded in his wake as he scampered down the steep stone steps, that is.

But Peter put her objections out of his mind in favor of getting back to his friends. And finding out what was causing that terrible racket.

Seeing as he had no other clues as to which way to go, he decided to follow these strange noises.

They were monkeys. That's right, monkeys. It turned out that there was a room in Glinda's castle devoted entirely to monkeys. As soon as Peter found the room, he decided it would be best for him to leave. The last time he'd interacted with the wildlife, he'd ended up transported to... well, here, actually.

He didn't want to risk another uprooting, especially as he was several steps across the chasm of unknown dimensions that separated him from his fellow marauders.

Ahem. I mean, he wanted to get back to his friends.

He began wandering the walls, hunting for a way out. If only he were three months older, he'd be able to Apparate out. To where, he had no idea—he couldn't very well go back home without letting the others know—but if he were _able _to he would have felt far more secure.

He was beginning to despair of ever getting back when suddenly fate intervened in the way of an author anxious to finish up the chapter. Or rather, in the way of another young witch slightly younger looking than Glinda opening a door Peter hadn't even seen.

(This was of course Elaina, returning for some reason or another. But Peter didn't know that.)

Seeing his chance, Peter bolted towards the door (ah, outdoors again at last!) and straight into a flock of toucans.

He wondered for a moment if flock was the correct word, or if there was a term specific for toucans. Then he decided it didn't matter and started to make a run for it. He was a bit scared of the colorful birds at the moment. They looked more menacing in large groups than they did alone.

But alas, poor Peter did not make it. He'd only scurried a few feet when one of the birds picked him up in its large beak.

Man, this day was really trying Peter's courage. He was certain a Slytherin would have fainted from fright long ago under the same circumstances.

Or rather, this night. It was getting quite late and the poor rat was exhausted.

But he was slightly more focused on the matter at hand; namely that he was currently residing inside the mouth of a toucan.

_Crap._

He didn't have to worry about it for long, though. Moments later, the toucan had dropped him to the ground.

And no sooner did he hit the ground then he was back in the grassy meadow with his friends. Said friends being fast asleep. That looked pretty good to Peter, and before he could even consider waking them up to let them know he was alright, he was unconscious.

**A/N: **Well. I feel like the Animagus bit was a little too stereotypical, but it had to be in there somewhere. Also, sorry for the delay. The summer kind of slipped away on me. I tried to make it up to you with an extra long chapter. (It's a freaking monster! For me, anyway. Seriously, it could probably work as _two_ chapters...)

On another note, wow. Peter's really run away with this story... When I started it, I didn't intend to make him particularly significant. Now he's practically the star. Guess it comes from trying too hard to make him not suck?

And a thousand thanks and a cake for MooBlack for betaing.


	9. Chapter Eight

**Chapter Eight: In which there is a meeting with the second counterpart. **

Sirius blinked when Peter was finished with his story. "Huh. Never would have thought that."

Remus put his head into his hands and groaned. "The toucan! Of course!"

"Why do these things always look so obvious in retrospect?" added Lily.

Sirius stopped walking, unnoticed by his friends.

"Well hey, I'm back now. That's all that matters," said Peter.

James cleared his throat. "Well. Not _all _that matters," he pointed out. "We still haven't eaten for an entire day."

Then James looked up. And froze.

"I'm sure we'll come across some...thing..." Lily trailed off as she too glanced away from the road.

There was a man, made entirely of tin, sitting on a log alongside the yellow brick road. His head rested in his hands, and he wasn't moving. He was the very picture of misery. Frozen misery.

"Who would put a sculpture like that way the hell out here?" wondered Sirius.

Remus glanced back at him, then hurried toward the man of tin. "I don't think he's a sculpture," he muttered.

The others followed, and crowed around as Remus poked the unusual man. "Excuse me, sir? Sir?"

James giggled. Er, chuckled. "You have no idea how ridiculous you look talking to that statue."

His chuckles died off immediately though, when Lily sat down on the other side of the tin man. "Can you talk?" she asked.

James narrowed his eyes, thinking hard. _Tin Man... _he'd heard something like that before.

"Why on earth would he be real?" laughed Sirius, still disbelieving.

"Think about where we are, and what else we've seen," said Remus.

"Well, he's not moving. Maybe he needs some oil?" asked Peter, gesturing toward the oil can in his lap.

Sirius sniggered, but Lily seized the oil can and started applying generous amounts of oil to the rusty tin.

Glancing at her, Sirius quit laughing and muttered a spell, waving his wand at the stranger. His joints were instantly coated in oil.

Lily looked up. "Where'd you learn that?" she asked.

"I, uh, used it on a... project, recently," he muttered, still watching the newly oiled tin man. James snorted, but didn't say anything. He didn't want to be implicated as co-conspirator to Sirius's project.

Although he really was a co-conspirator

Even if their last illegal pastime had eventually gone over without too much pain, he didn't want to risk it again. After all, a motorbike wasn't nearly as impressive as becoming an Animagus... there would be nothing to cover up the fact that they were, in fact, breaking laws left and right.

Lily was about to comment further and perhaps pry this accusatory information out of them in a somewhat painful way when she was interrupted.

"She's gone!" were the first words out of his mouth. The Tin Man's mouth, that is. The marauders and Lily all jumped.

"Who's gone?" asked Remus, the first to recover despite the fact that he was closest to the man.

"Dorothy!" He was almost crying. "That horrible witch sent her away, and she was the only one who could have... saved the... country."

He wasn't making any sense to the poor wizards.

"Huh?" asked Peter.

"The prophecy said... only one girl. And she was it. And now she's gone, and I'll never get a heart."

"Where did she go? What prophecy?" asked Lily, resting a soothing hand on the Tin Man's arm. A slight frown crossed James's face.

Peter's stomach gave a growl and he wandered into the woods, leaving this strange man for the others to deal with.

"She was the only one who made me feel like I maybe did have a heart. Now she's gone and I'm hopeless." He sniffed.

That was about the sweetest thing Lily had ever heard. The obvious loneliness... the longing. "That's so sweet," she cooed. "Where did she go? Maybe we can help you find her."

"She wouldn't want to come back. She's gone home to Kansas. It's all she ever said to anyone. She wanted to go home. And Glinda sent her home. And then Glinda turned out to be evil, and it turned out there was this prophecy and that Dorothy was the only one who could kill her."

"Well then, we obviously need to get her back. Kansas... that's in the States, isn't it?" said James.

Lily moved her arm to James. "James, wait. Do you remember what the scary short people kept saying to us?"

James couldn't answer, his tongue being rather tied and his attention rather preoccupied by her hand, but Sirius did. "Follow the yellow brick road?" he asked.

Lily rolled her eyes. "No, not that. I remember that."

Remus pulled the piece of paper filled with their notes from earlier out of his pocket and quickly scanned through it. "Not Hogwarts... insane short people... sun in the North... bright... they know who we are." He stopped. "They know who we are. Is that what you meant?"

"Keep going, mate," said James, peering over his shoulder at the list while carefully not to moving away from Lily's arm. "Replacements? Prophecy? You think we're replacements for this Dorothy girl?"

Lily nodded.

It made sense. It made more sense than anything else they'd experienced since their arrival in this strange land of Oz.

The Tin Man sniffled again, bringing their attention back to him. "I know she wouldn't want to come back here, but do you think you could find someway for me to contact her again? I think that's all I need, to have a heart..."

Lily patted his arm and stood up. "We'll see what we can do," she promised. "In the meantime, we've got to see about getting to the Emerald City as soon as possible. Can you tell us how much farther we have to go?"

"It's about a day's walk from here... You'll have to go through a dark, gloomy forest. If you happen to see a lion who's scared of his own shadow, tell him the Tin Man says hi."

Lilly smiled reassuringly. "We'll tell him. Do you mind if we put a tracer spell on you, so we can find you later if we need to?" She looked pointedly at James who, in turn, pulled out his wand.

When the Tin Man agreed, James waved his wand and said the words. "There we go!" he said when he was finished.

Remus looked around. "Where did Peter go?" he wondered.

"Not again!" groaned James. "PETER!" But he needn't have worried. As soon as he yelled, Peter came trotting out of the woods looking pleased with himself.

"I found some berries!" he said when he was within earshot.

There were cheers from the other teenagers, and they hurried towards Peter. Sirius lagged behind. "Hey, Tinny. If you ever need your joints oiled again, just say _'con di da di l'olio'_ in your head, and the spell should renew itself."

The Tin Man looked surprised. "Thank you!" he cried. "_Con did a di l'olio..._You have no idea what a bother rusting is. One spring shower and you're stuck frozen wherever you are until some clever passersby show up to oil you again. And believe me, that doesn't happen often."

Sirius grinned and jogged toward where the others had gone. "Stay loose, Tinny!" he called as he went.

**A/N:** Hey guys! Guess what! I had an epiphany this morning. I now know exactly where this story is going, how it will end, and what will happen between now and then. (Yes, I admit it. I didn't know how it would end before today. I had a vague idea, but nothing very stable.) I estimate somewhere between 4 – 6 chapters left, but don't quote me on that. We'll see how it goes. Goal for finishing: end of the year.

And thanks again to MooBlack for the beta.


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